Slí Gaeltacht Mhúscraí Ultra

Thanks to everyone who signed up today! We are blown away by the response and happy to announce that the Ultra is now full. We will keep a waiting list for anyone who might have missed out - please message us either here or via the Facebook page. If anyone is interested in running the SGM half marathon (which takes place the same day), I believe the entries for that will go live on Wednesday. Rob

Hi Robert, Just wondering how the waiting list is looking? I'm hoping to get a long run in March. From experience when do you think you will be in a position to confirm if a place is available? Just in case, I have registered for the half marathon.

Competitors please note that some extreme weather has been forecast for the coming week. There will be severe frosts and from Tuesday onwards, the temperatures in West Cork will struggle to rise above zero degrees Celsius, if we are to believe the forecasts. The race directors will continue to monitor the situation. The safety of the runners is our top priority, both out on the course and the logistics of getting to the start safely in icy conditions. We will post another update on Wednesday evening. At the very least we envisage that there will be enhanced mandatory kit requirements.

@Eamon - well I'm glad to see you've been reading up on the history of this great route!

UPDATE
We've had an anxious couple of days watching the weather forecast and the various weather alerts which have been issued by the government. This evening the race directors had a conference call and we decided that unfortunately, in all likelihood, we will have to postpone the Ultra.

None of us had any doubt that the Ultra runners would be well up for the challenge of running through the snow and ice. Our main issues are with people being able to travel safely to the event (at the moment there is a "Red Alert" in place for Friday) and for the support vehicles being able to travel safely along the route on Saturday.

We are looking at an alternative date in March to host the Ultra, and we will spend tomorrow (Thursday) looking into the logistics of this. I will post another message at the same time tomorrow (Thursday) evening with further details. I apologise for the inconvenience - unfortunately the circumstances really are exceptional and beyond our control. Questions regarding refunds etc. will be addressed in the next message.

Barry - Although I am not on the race committee, I would respectfully suggest that posing alternative dates to the race directors may not be helpful as they have many considerations.
Let's all wait until the race directors make a decision.

UPDATE
Myself, Robbie and Matthew have been working in the background on an alternative date for the Ultra marathon and the Half marathon. Thanks to those people who sent us suggestions. Ultimately, it will be impossible to find a date that suits everyone.

We have almost settled on a date, but we're not quite there yet. It's been difficult to contact the local stakeholders due to the bad weather. We hope to be in a position to announce the new date by tomorrow (Friday) evening. Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, we can confirm that refunds will be available to those who cannot make the new date. There will be more details on the refund process tomorrow.

The next update will be tomorrow (Friday) evening. Thank you to everyone who has sent us messages of support.
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After much discussion and many phone calls, we have set the new date for the Ultra Marathon for Saturday 17th March (i.e. St. Patrick's Day). We have looked at parade schedules and we don't think that they will impact on our race (or vice versa).

We understand that this won't suit everybody, and apologies again for that. Anyone who can't make the new date will have their race entry refunded.

We will now proceed as follows. I have sent an e-mail to anyone who registered for the Ultra, and also to people who were on the Ultra waiting list. Please check the e-mail address that you used to register with IMRA.

If you wish to run with us on March 17th, please e-mail me back to confirm that you wish to take part. The deadline for getting back to me will be Sunday 4th March at 11pm. Please only use e-mail (not Facebook, text or IMRA forum) as otherwise it will be hard for me to track 50+ replies.

If you can't run on March 17th and wish to be refunded your entry fee, please e-mail me back anyway to confirm that.

By Monday morning, we will hopefully know how many runners from the original group can make it on March 17th. Any remaining places in the race will then be offered via the IMRA website - hopefully we can bring the number back up to 50.

Think about it over the next 48 hours and hopefully as many of you as possible can join us for this West Cork adventure on March 17th.
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Due to the change of date, we have some extra spaces available in both the Half marathon and the Ultra marathon. Thanks to those who contacted us requesting refunds - these will be processed by IMRA in due course.

Ultra: 17 places
Half: 32 places

These places will be available to purchase from 7pm on Wednesday 7th March. Make sure you have a valid 2018 IMRA registration, then log in to myIMRA and click on "Purchase IMRA products".

Registration will remain open until all places are filled. Ultra €60; Half €30. Remember that both races are non-profit, and any proceeds will be fed back into the local West Cork communities who maintain the trails. Thanks.
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Welcome to the 10 new runners that have signed up for the Ultra at such short notice. The names of those who are awaiting refunds have been submitted to IMRA.

We still have 7 spaces left. I will be closing the registration on Sunday at midnight as we need to finalise the start list and allocate the trackers. On Monday I will e-mail the final instructions to all registered runners. Looking forward to welcoming you all to West Cork next Saturday.
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For the armchair followers, live tracking for the Ultra will be available here:

http://live.primaltracking.com/sgmultra18/

You can also view the start list and pick a runner to support. The race gets underway at 8.00am on Saturday. Thanks to Eddie and Rowan at Primal Tracking for providing the excellent taking service again this year.

Provisional results - please let me know if you have any issues with these manually recorded times. We didn't record seconds and rounded down to the next nearest minute. Some of the times on the tracking site might differ, due to trackers updating after runners had already crossed the finish line.

Results are now up for Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai Ultra, the second running of the event and first installment of the Munster Long Distance Championship. Any questions/queries on results, please email:
brian.flannelly at imra dot ie
Many thanks to Rob/Robbie, and their team of volunteers, and all who made this re-scheduled race possible